Megaliths of antiquity or stone structures of the prehistoric era are found in different parts of the Earth, the most famous are: English Stonehenge and French Karnak, but not everyone knows that the most ancient structures made of stone slabs are located in the small archipelago of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.
Megaliths of the Maltese Islands
The peculiarity of the Maltese megaliths is that they are not isolated structures, but huge complexes called cromlechs.
The island of Gozo is home to the oldest stone megalith, which, according to scientists, was built more than five thousand years ago. Megalith received its name Ggantiya long ago and is translated into Russian as "huge". Ggantija is a pair of giant stone temples with a common back wall. Each temple has three rooms, which mean three states: birth, life and nothingness.
The second largest megalith, Hagar Kvim, is located on the island of Malta; huge towers of stone slabs rise more than five meters above the ground. All the stones from which the towers-temples are made are fitted to each other so perfect that even modern craftsmen could hardly have done better.
The towers serve to display the movement of the sun across the sky, and during the equinox, the rays from the sun are directly on the main altar. Scientists are still amazed at the accuracy of the calculations of the ancient builders. It was here that the so-called Maltese Venus was found, a small ancient statuette of a woman that is now kept in the country's National Museum.
The stone temple of Gal Saflienė, unlike other temples, does not stretch upwards, but goes 12 meters underground. The temple was once intended for the burial of priestesses of the cult of the goddess Isis. The walls of this underground megalith are painted with a spiral ornament, which in ancient times was a symbol of rebirth and the beginning of a new life after death.
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And this is just a small number of ancient stone buildings that rise on the islands of the Maltese archipelago. There are also other ancient megaliths.